cyperacejE. (sedge family.) 497 



a narrowed base, beaked with a slender conical-awl-shaped distinct tubercle, 

 which nearly equals the 6 bristles. (E. reclinata, Kunth!) — Wet slopes ; com- 

 mon northward, and west to Illinois. 



++ ++ Bristles 2-4, shorter than the achenium and fragile, or none. 



9. E. tenuis, Schultes. Culms almost capillary, erect, sharply A-angular 

 (1° high), the sides concave; spike elliptical, acutish, 20 - 30-Jlowered (3" long) ; 

 scales ovate, obtuse, chestnut-purple with a broad scarious margin and green keel; 

 achenium obovate, roughened with close and fine projecting dots, crowned with a small 

 depressed tubercle ; bristles 2-3, half the length of the achenium, or wanting. 

 (E. elliptica, Kunth !) — Wet meadows and bogs ; common. 



10. E. COlltpressa, Sullivant. Culms fiat, strongly striate, slender, 

 erect (1^° high) ; spike ovate-oblong, 20 - 30-fiowercd (4" long); scales lanceolate- 

 ovate, acute, dark purple with broad white pellucid margins and summit; the style 

 2-cleft ; achenium obovate-pear-shaped, obtusely 3-angled, obscurely wrinkled-pitted, 

 crowned with a small globular-conical tubercle; bristles none (rarely a single rudi- 

 ment). — Wet places, N. New York, Ohio, and Illinois. — Culms tufted on run- 

 ning rootstocks, |" broad, strikingly flat, spirally twisted in drying. 



11. E. mclanocarpa, Torr. Culms flattened, grooved, wiry, erect (9' 

 -18' high) ; spike cylindrical-ovoid or oblong, thick, obtuse, densely many-flowered 

 (3" -6" long) ; scales roundish-ovate, very obtuse, brownish with broad scarious 

 margins ; achenium smooth, obovate-top-shaped, obtusely triangular, the broad summit 

 entirely covered like a lid by the flatly depressed tubercle, which is raised in the cen- 

 tre into a short abrupt triangular point; bristles 3 or 4, shorter than the (soon 

 blackish) achenium, fragile, often obsolete. — Wet sand, Plymouth, Massachu- 

 setts, to Virginia, and southward along the coast. Scales closely many-ranked, 

 as in the first division of § 2. 



12. E. triCOStata, Torr. Culms flattish, thread-like (1°- 2° high) ; spike 

 cylindrical-oblong, densely many-flowered (6'/ -9" long), thickish ; scales ovate, 

 very obtuse, rusty brown, with broad scarious margins ; achenium obovate, with 3 

 prominent thickened angles, minutely rough-wrinkled, crowned with a short-conical 

 acute tubercle; bristles none. — Quaker Bridge, New Jersey (Knieskern), and 

 southward. 



i- •*- Spike lance-linear, scarcely broader than the sharply triangular culm : scales 

 few-ranked, greenish, finely several-nerved on the keeled back. 



13. E. Bobbilisii, Oakes. Flower-bearing culms exactly triangular, rather 

 stout, erect (8' -2° high), also producing tufts of capillary abortive stems, like 

 fine leaves, which float in the water ; sheath obliquely truncate ; scales of the 

 pointed spike 3-9, convolute-clasping, lanceolate, obtuse, with scarious mar- 

 gins ; achenium oblong-obovate, 3-angular, minutely reticulated, about half the 

 length of the 6 downwardly-barbed strong bristles, tipped with a flattened awl- 

 shaped tubercle. — Shallow water, from Pondicherry Pond, New Hampshire 

 (Bobbins), to New Jersey, C. E. Smith, &e. — Spike varying from }> to 1' long, by 

 1" wide; the long scales being rather remote and sheath-like. 



§ 3. CHiETOCYPEllUS, Nees. — Scales of the compressed few - several flowered 

 spike membranaceous, 2-3-ranked: bristles 3 - 6, fragile or fugacious : style 3-cleft : 

 achenium triangular or somewhat terete : culms small and capillary. 

 42* 



